Pursue Progress and Consistency, not Perfection in 2023

“Small accomplishments every single day when combined over a year will amount to something tremendous and beautiful”

To achieve the goals you’ve set in 2023, always keep in mind that progress and consistency are far more important than perfection. The progress you make consistently in that area of your life you consider vital is going to push you closer to the things you desire and the person you want to become in 2023.

Conversely, the constant pursuit of perfection if you are not a perfectionist will often discourage and frustrate you especially when things don’t work out as you anticipated. For most people, consistency comes easy than perfection in that, doing small bits of an important task every day is feasible than trying to complete the same task today perfectly.

Undeniably, no matter how focussed and motivated you are, at some point you’ll get tired and will need to rest. Hence, the idea of breaking our goals into small activities and tasks to be pursued constantly and cumulatively seems plausible. If anything, the smalls wins are bound to motivate and energize one to achieve more.

 Secondly, at times, though you put your level best at a task, it’s never a guarantee that things will work out. Logically, if they don’t work out and you were fixated on attaining perfection in that area, frustration and discouragement may sip in effectively killing all the morale you had. Not many people are good at managing defeat especially when they heavily invested themselves in a particular task/goal.

Perfection is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, many of us equate perfection with excellence. While there is a link between the two, perfection and excellence are not exactly synonymous. While scoring 86% in mathematics may be regarded an excellent score, a perfectionist may still be bothered by the 14% they missed. To a typical perfectionist, excellence connotes 100%. There is never room for failure.

That said, while it is true that we all appreciate things that are done well, its noteworthy that excellence and perfection in any given area takes a lot of practice and patience. Factually, most people who excel at something have invested so much time and energy in perfecting that skill or art. Accordingly, to attain perfection, you must be willing to invest a lot of time and energy. In addition, discipline to always do what needs to be done comes in handy.

For someone who is starting off in a new area, perfection needs not be the goal. This is because you are starting out, and it makes more sense to take your time to gather the tools and experience needed to succeed in that new area. In addition, you also need to learn how to best use the tools so that you get optimum results.

Once you have the tools and have learnt how to apply them optimally, only at that stage can you start working towards perfection and excellence. In other words, pursuit of anything worthwhile requires a lot of patience.

The reason why most people give up on their goals too early in the year is because they are pushing for perfection without the right tools, experience, and patience. When things don’t seem to work out as expected, they get frustrated and more often than not they give up.

If one of your goals this year is to exercise and get in shape, start small. Chose the equipment that you can handle and keep using it until going to the gym becomes a habit. Thereafter, transition gradually to more challenging exercises which will be impactful. If you start big, chances of your getting exhausted and quitting early on are very high.

Starting small helps you to grow into your goals slowly and more naturally. Your goals become easier to pursue when you understand that it’s going to take time for you to learn and perfect the art of pursuing and achieving them.

Again, take time to understand why the goal you set have is important to you and how it contributes to the ultimate vision you have for yourself. Start learning more about the strategies that are going to help you attain your objectives.

Importantly, build the goals into your routine so that pursuing them feels habitual and natural. For instance, if keeping fit is one of your physical goals in 2023, discipline yourself to do some small exercising each day. 10 minutes of exercising every day is better than the 1hr in a week.

Lastly, remember there are days you are going to feel tired, and you may skip your pursuit. Never feel guilty about it. Just remind yourself that taking a break is in order but don’t prolong it. Go back as soon as possible and continue from where you left.

Small accomplishments every single day when combined over a year will amount to something tremendous and beautiful.

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